A NEW giant solar farm in the American Mojave Desert has reportedly been scorching birds as they fly through the extremely hot ‘thermal flux’.

After years of debate around the impact on desert wildlife, the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System officially opened on Thursday (13/2) but environmental groups say the 350,000 gigantic mirrors are generating nearly 540 degree temperatures which are killing and scorching birds.

According to documents released by developer BrightSource Energy last year, dozens of birds were found to be injured at the site when it was getting built.

State and federal officials are currently embarking on a two-year study of the plant to see its damage to birds, with environmental groups questioning the value of cleaner power when local wildlife is being killed in the process.

The windy stretch of the Mojave Desert once roamed by tortoises and coyotes has been transformed by hundreds of thousands of mirrors into the largest solar power plant of its type in the world, a milestone for a growing industry that is testing the balance between wilderness conservation and the pursuit of green energy across the American West.

The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, sprawling across roughly 5 square miles (13 sq. kilometres) of federal land near the California-Nevada border, formally opened Thursday after years of regulatory and legal tangles ranging from relocating protected tortoises to assessing the impact on Mojave milkweed and other plants.